1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of data acquisition systems, and in particular, to a data acquisition system having setup duplication capability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the commercial laundry field it is desirable to provide laundry appliances, such as washers and dryers, with owner selectable features. For example, a laundromat owner or route operator may wish to configure one or more appliances to provide for each appliance a selected cycle length for a selected price. Owners may wish to configure or reconfigure similar appliances to provide similar operation.
For these reasons, manufacturers of such appliances often provide ways in which the appliance can be configured or reconfigured as desired. For example, the coin receiving mechanisms typically utilized in conjunction with vending machines, including commercial laundry appliances, permit the owner to select a desired vend price from a range of available prices. Many techniques are known for providing such selectable pricing, including techniques for mechanically adjusting an electro-mechanical coin mechanism or counter. Examples of such mechanical adjustment means are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,097 (Kresta et al.) and 4,844,229 (Friedman et al.) which employ three-way adjustable price setters and linkage quickly to change the coin control mechanism among any one of three preset prices. A vender which can easily preset the vend price by suitably opening and closing a plurality of switches is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,775 (Hayashi). Furthermore, electronic means are commonly used to adjust an electro-mechanical coin mechanism or counter. For example, electronic adjustment means utilizing selection switches which are also used for sale purposes to store data in a microcomputer vending machine are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,316,532 (Levasseur) and 4,706,794 (Awane et al.).
An appliance programmer integrated circuit having a basic program of operation which may be modified two ways is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,599 (Karklys). The basic program may be automatically altered by a program change command circuit which is incorporated in the programmer circuit and which scans certain terminals of the circuit to determine the particular program application. In addition, the operator is provided with switches for selectively altering the basic program.
Similar adjustments have been provided for certain mechanical operations of an appliance. For example, electronic and electro-mechanical timers have been used in conjunction with washers and dryers in a commercial laundry environment wherein user-selectable timing intervals are provided. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,014 (Harris) describes a mechanically adjustable interval cycle timer. Rotation of a setting shaft changes the angular position of a stop lug which in turn controls the starting position of a lug on a reset gear. U.S. Pat. No. 3,112,378 (Holzer) describes a mechanical device for changing the program of washing machines by using switching means controlled by a keyplate.
State-of-the-art commercial laundry appliances today further incorporate data accumulation and communication capabilities. For example, switches or electro-optical detectors may be provided to monitor certain aspects of machine operation, such as monies deposited, cycles vended, certain door openings, power failures and other useful information. These data may be retained in electronic memory within the appliance and subsequently communicated to a portable collection unit, such as a hand held probe or computer. Systems of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,369,442 (Werth et al.); 4,216,461 (Werth et al.) and 4,306,219 (Main et al.). In such a system, the laundry appliance is provided with an appropriate means for establishing communication with an external device, such as an infrared optical communication link.
It is known to utilize electronic means for configuring the operating parameters of a vending machine. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,539 (Heeger) describes a sequence controller utilizing a microprocessor to control timing and other sequence information in connection with a vending machine. The specific timing parameters are alterable electronically by means of a service module which may be coupled to the vending machine to alter certain memory code corresponding to sequence timing and other aspects of the machine operation, as desired. Thus, the vending machine is flexibly reconfigurable for various modes of operation, utilizing a detachable electronic module.
The prior approaches for permitting a user to selectably configure an appliance as described above have many limitations. For example, when parameters for individual machines are altered by a single service module having setup information stored in its memory a substantial waste of time and expense is incurred. This waste is evident if a second machine is to be setup identically to the first machine, the same setup information must be entered into the memory of the service module for the second machine because parameters for each machine contain information which is unique to that machine, such as identification number and position. If the same setup used for the first machine was used on the second machine, the first and second machines would become indistinguishable. Thus if many appliances are to be setup with similar or identical parameters, it becomes time consuming to enter the same or similar setup information for each machine in the memory of the service module before transmitting it to the appropriate machine.
It is also desirable to provide commercial laundry appliances having data acquisition systems which allow setup records or portions of setup records to be copied from one appliance to another without altering information concerning the identity of each appliance. Unfortunately, none of the prior art devices or methods provide for such a duplication capability.